Paris sans fin

Leaving a café, Giacometti once exclaimed, Ah, Paris… Paris without end! Hence the title of this legendary book, which Tériade originally published in 1969, in 200 lithographed copies. One hundred and fifty drawings accompanied by an unfinished text by the artist himself, lure readers into an exceptional exploration of the French capital in the 1960s. From his studio to cafés, walking or driving, on boulevards, at the Gare de l’Est train station, the Jardin des Plantes botanical garden and elsewhere, we discover streets, façades, bars and cars of the era, and occasionally a few characters — bandits, prostitutes, gamblers. Often seen as Giacometti’s testament, Paris sans fin is a fabulous, almost decade-long graphic peregrination in which the images offer a complex maze of contradictory paths. The clocks don’t tell the time, spaces blend together. Ignoring the rules of logic and chronology, a narrative crops up: the story of a life, the life of a stubborn, absolutely sincere and completely unclassifiable artist. Thirty previously unpublished drawings complete this edition.